Everything Apple Announced Today, From Macs to Apps

Apple held a press event Thursday morning in Cupertino, California. Center stage was the new MacBook Pro, which now has a touchscreen strip at the top of the keyboard. Neat! But that’s not all. Here are all the big announcements.

01

New MacBook Pro

Holy smokes these new MacBooks are thin! The aluminum bodies have shrunk significantly since the previous model—the 13-incher is 23 percent smaller and weighs three pounds—but the screen and keyboard stay the same size. Pricing starts at $1,799. They have the latest generation of chips inside, Force Touch trackpads, and huge SSDs. But also…

Credit: Apple

Holy smokes these new MacBooks are thin! The aluminum bodies have shrunk significantly since the previous model—the 13-incher is 23 percent smaller and weighs three pounds—but the screen and keyboard stay the same size. Pricing starts at $1,799. They have the latest generation of chips inside, Force Touch trackpads, and huge SSDs. But also…

02

The Touch Bar

The function keys are gone. In the place of the keyboard’s top row is a thin touchscreen display Apple calls the Touch Bar. It has the controls for brightness and media playback, but it’s also a touchscreen, so users and developers can set it up however they want. All the big apps (Photoshop, Pages, Safari, Photos, Terminal) will have custom keys that swap in to make shortcuts and common controls easier to access. And yes, it works as an emoji keyboard too.

Credit: JOSH EDELSON /Getty Images

The function keys are gone. In the place of the keyboard’s top row is a thin touchscreen display Apple calls the Touch Bar. It has the controls for brightness and media playback, but it’s also a touchscreen, so users and developers can set it up however they want. All the big apps (Photoshop, Pages, Safari, Photos, Terminal) will have custom keys that swap in to make shortcuts and common controls easier to access. And yes, it works as an emoji keyboard too.

03

A New Smaller MacBook Pro

“Baloney,” you say. “I want the benefits of a new MacBook Pro but also I want a computer with real function keys and I don’t want to pay extra money for that Touch Bar which I also do not want!” Well guess what, Luddite, Apple has one of those as well. There’s a 13-inch version of the new MacBook Pro that’s spec’d a little lower but has traditional keyboard with function keys intact. It’s $1,499 and it is available today. Oh and it’s so, so tiny—that photo to the right shows the new 13-inch MacBook Pro back-to-back with the seemingly massive 13-inch MacBook Air.

Credit: Apple

“Baloney,” you say. “I want the benefits of a new MacBook Pro but also I want a computer with real function keys and I don’t want to pay extra money for that Touch Bar which I also do not want!” Well guess what, Luddite, Apple has one of those as well. There’s a 13-inch version of the new MacBook Pro that’s spec’d a little lower but has traditional keyboard with function keys intact. It’s $1,499 and it is available today. Oh and it’s so, so tiny—that photo to the right shows the new 13-inch MacBook Pro back-to-back with the seemingly massive 13-inch MacBook Air.

04

Touch ID Moves to the Mac

One of the most significant developments in this new Touch Bar era is that Touch ID is now available on MacBooks Pros. Sure, there have been fingerprint readers on laptops before, but now your Mac gets fingerprint-based Apple Pay transactions on the web and in apps, and the benefits of fingerprint-based fast user switching.

Credit: Apple

One of the most significant developments in this new Touch Bar era is that Touch ID is now available on MacBooks Pros. Sure, there have been fingerprint readers on laptops before, but now your Mac gets fingerprint-based Apple Pay transactions on the web and in apps, and the benefits of fingerprint-based fast user switching.

05

A New App Called TV

The Apple TV is a sweet device, but you can often spend eons looking for something to watch. Apple hopes to change that with a new app simply called “TV” that pulls together recommended shows from all of your installed services and puts them into one app. It’s Siri-powered too, so you can talk to your TV more often than you already do. One thing to note: It has a lot of services, but it won’t have Netflix or Amazon.

Credit: Apple

The Apple TV is a sweet device, but you can often spend eons looking for something to watch. Apple hopes to change that with a new app simply called “TV” that pulls together recommended shows from all of your installed services and puts them into one app. It’s Siri-powered too, so you can talk to your TV more often than you already do. One thing to note: It has a lot of services, but it won’t have Netflix or Amazon.

06

Apple Watch Nike+ Is Shipping

If you’re a runner, your heart sped up when you saw Apple announce its Watch collaboration with Nike earlier this year. Now that version of the Apple Watch is here, so you can buy one and track your fitness to your heart’s content. The Apple Watch Nike+ is available this week starting at $369.

Credit: Apple

If you’re a runner, your heart sped up when you saw Apple announce its Watch collaboration with Nike earlier this year. Now that version of the Apple Watch is here, so you can buy one and track your fitness to your heart’s content. The Apple Watch Nike+ is available this week starting at $369.

07

Portrait Mode on iPhone 7 Plus

When the iPhone 7 made its debut last month, Apple spent a long time talking about its camera—especially the camera in the iPhone 7 Plus, which has an additional software trick in Portrait mode. This feature, called Depth Effect, lets you take a sharp snapshot of a person and leave the background all creamy and blurry and pretty. That feature didn’t ship with the phone, but it’s available now. Apple actually released it a few days ago, but the company reminded us today that it exists, and that it looks pretty cool. They even had the photos to prove it.

Credit: Apple

When the iPhone 7 made its debut last month, Apple spent a long time talking about its camera—especially the camera in the iPhone 7 Plus, which has an additional software trick in Portrait mode. This feature, called Depth Effect, lets you take a sharp snapshot of a person and leave the background all creamy and blurry and pretty. That feature didn’t ship with the phone, but it’s available now. Apple actually released it a few days ago, but the company reminded us today that it exists, and that it looks pretty cool. They even had the photos to prove it.